The hearthes of Tolbor-15 site: the planigraphy of settlement and human activity in early Upper Paleolithic of Mongolia

Purpose. The region of Mongolia establishes a geographic link between the distribution of blade assemblages from South Siberia and Northern China. In that sense, Mongolia may be seen as a potential contact zone between populations from East Asia and South Siberia. Included Ikh Tulbariin Gol and Kharganyn Gol River Valley the unique Tolbor archaeological localities had been investigated since 2003. Over the last decade, this setting has motivated research projects that mainly focused on the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic. These efforts have highlighted the occurrence of the Central Asian variant of the so-called Initial Upper Paleolithic (IUP). The latter is broadly comparable in age and in composition to techno-complexes distributed much further to the west (e.g., the Altai, Levant and Central Europe), but also show distinct derived features. Most of these assemblages have been discovered during the last decade along the tributaries of the Selenga River. With 37 Paleolithic occurrences, the highest concentration of surface and stratified sites clusters within a radius of 10 km from the confluence of the Ikh-Tulberiin-Gol (Tolbor Valley) and the Selenga. The five main stratified sites identified in the region Tolbor 4, Tolbor 15, Tolbor 16, Tolbor 21 and the newly discovered Kharganyn-Gol 5 presented herein. The data contained the results of spatial analysis allow to interpret the concept of adaptation and special aspects of occupation in this region. Results. The evidences of fire use were found in 6-7 horizon of the Tolbor-15 site, which is define as a workshop typologically. A few kind of combustion structures were investigated in the site: flat fire places with reddish-brown sediments and ash spots, which have a different filling and depth. The comparison of these objects with areas of most intensive flaking allow to reconstruct the human using of home space. The new data confirms and proves the type of Tolbor-15 site - the workshop. Conclusion. The comparison of three clusters of data - planigraphic, results of spatial analysis and statistical allocation of different type of stone artifact in complexes - gave the opportunity to define that ancient people prefer to flake near the fire. Intensive activity associates with the hearths, but never with ash spot. As we concluded, the long-term fire places were cleaned. The site is a workshop, where human treats stone cores and ostrich shell, perhaps bone. Fixed in horizon 6-7 of Tolbor-15 site the fire use related to arid and cold periods and can presented the logical response inside of adaptation to paleoclimatic changes during the Heinrich Event 4.